I can’t help but feel things will be a lot more normal-leaning in the next six months as the COVID vaccines make their way into arms, and we, collectively, finally get the upper hand on this damn virus. Kids will go back to school. People will go back to work. We’ll be more social with one another. At least one can hope.

Assuming that is true, I’ve been taking stock lately of all the changes I’ve made to my life throughout the pandemic due to the constraints it brought. Once life gets back to life as normal, I don’t want to necessarily abandon all of the changes I made during lockdown. Maybe you shouldn’t either.

Several of the changes I’ve made to how I work have turned out to be substantial improvements over how I was getting things done pre-COVID. For example, having my kids and wife back home 24/7 means I had to be very particular about scheduling when I record podcasts, screencasts, and videos. This actually resulted in me getting more consistent recording work done than when I had free reign to do it whenever I wanted. I’m now making a list of the positive changes I’ve made during lockdown and figuring out how to keep those parts when things get more normal.

As far as tech, this is not rocket science. I’m just doing it in a text file. I’ve got the idea to build this list in the back of my mind and, as I go through the days and encounter changes I would like to keep, write them down. Ultimately, I’ll incorporate check-ins for myself to make sure I keep up with the new habits in the future via OmniFocus.